What do footballers and football fans have in common with the Mona Lisa? Well I wouldn’t be asking the question if the answer wasn’t “something”, would I now?

In his book Irrational Exuberance, the Yale economist Robert Shiller explains how the inherent psychological characteristics of human beings and their application to social situations and, well, life, cause irrational stock market and housing market bubbles, with a bubble being where an asset (such as a share in a company or a house) is valued at an amount that is greater than what it is actually worth (think of the famous Tulip-mania in 17^th century Holland, those silly Dutch buggers).

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And so it’s that time of the year again when newspapers, websites and magazines from all over the world highlight what they believe to have been the best and worst moments in football in 2010, looking at events both on and off the pitch. In this country, the majority of the “worst” moments have been deemed to be concerned with the morally bankrupt, money grabbing ways of the players today and the underhanded, corrupt and sinister dealings of FIFA, with the plaudits for the “best” moments being handed out mainly to Lionel Messi and his teams inspiring 5-0 demolition of Real Madrid in November. I couldn’t agree more. Read the full story

And so it’s that time of the year again when newspapers, websites and magazines from all over the world highlight what they believe to have been the best and worst moments in football in 2010, looking at events both on and off the pitch. In this country, the majority of the “worst” moments have been deemed to be concerned with the morally bankrupt, money grabbing ways of the players today and the underhanded, corrupt and sinister dealings of FIFA, with the plaudits for the “best” moments being handed out mainly to Lionel Messi and his teams inspiring 5-0 demolition of Real Madrid in November. I couldn’t agree more. Read the full story

There cannot be many footballers who have had so much written about them before they hit the age of 20 as has Inter Milan youngster Mario Balotelli. Yet apart from keen students of Serie A, very little is known about the striker who was born in Palermo to poor Ghanaian immigrants in August 1990. Some of the biggest clubs in the Premier League including the Manchester neighbours and Chelsea have been reported to be chasing his signature for weeks with even his own club now resigned to his imminent departure.
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There cannot be many footballers who have had so much written about them before they hit the age of 20 as has Inter Milan youngster Mario Balotelli. Yet apart from keen students of Serie A, very little is known about the striker who was born in Palermo to poor Ghanaian immigrants in August 1990. Some of the biggest clubs in the Premier League including the Manchester neighbours and Chelsea have been reported to be chasing his signature for weeks with even his own club now resigned to his imminent departure.
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Nobody can ever accuse Sir Alex Ferguson of sitting on the fence about anything so it was no surprise to hear him predict that Wayne Rooney will be one of the biggest stars of the next World Cup. The Manchester United manager also feels that England may have had it too easy in qualifying for the 2010 Finals and that the only regret he has about showing Diego Forlan the Old Trafford door in 2004 was that he sold him too cheaply.
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